Robert Parker - The Professional

HAWK AND Iwere having a “Thank God it’s late Thursday afternoon” drink at the far end of the bar in Grill 23.

“What’s the book?” I said to Hawk.

He looked at the hardcover on the bar beside him. The flap was keeping his place about one hundred pages in.

“New one by Janet Evanovich,” he said.

“Good?”

“Course it’s good. Would I be reading it, it’s not good?”

“You reading it, it wouldn’t dare,” I said.

Hawk smiled.

“Don’t suppose you want me to pop Gary Eisenhower for you,” Hawk said.

“There’s nothing going on here,” I said, “that anyone should die for.”

“Just an offer,” Hawk said.

“Thanks,” I said.

Hawk sipped some champagne.

“What are friends be for,” he said, “they can’t scrag somebody for you now and then?”

“I’ll take a raincheck,” I said.

Hawk looked as he always did, as if he’d just been washed and polished. His clothes were immaculate. His shirt seemed to glow with whiteness. His shaved head gleamed in the bar’s light.

“Maybe I should shave my head,” I said.

“White guys don’t look good with their heads shaved,” Hawk said.

“Why is that?” I said.

“Don’t know,” Hawk said. “Don’t look as good with hair, either.”

“Are you making invidious racial comparisons?” I said.

“Uh-huh,” Hawk said.

The bartender came down the bar and replaced our drinks.

“You say he knew the names of the women hired you,” Hawk said.

“Yes.”

“How many women he working, you think?”

“More than four,” I said.

“So somebody tole him,” Hawk said.

“Be my guess,” I said.

“One of them don’t believe she ain’t special to him,” Hawk said.

“You know this how?” I said.

“Simplest explanation,” he said.

“True,” I said.

“People believe what they need to believe,” Hawk said.

“Also true,” I said.

Hawk sipped his champagne. I had a little scotch.

“I got nowhere to go,” I said. “No one will testify, no one will bargain with him. They all want something they can’t have.”

“And there’s a lot you don’t know,” Hawk said.

“Susan says there’s something wrong with Gary,” I said.

“That he has as much sex as he does, with various women about whom he doesn’t care very much.”

“Strange tail,” Hawk said.

“I know,” I said. “I’m not sure Susan gets that, exactly.”

“She gets most things,” Hawk said.

“She does,” I said.

“I been thinking ’bout cutting back myself,” Hawk said.

“Official male attitudes aside, is there such a thing as too much sex?”

“Sure,” Hawk said.

“Even at your tolerance level?” I said.

“Even then,” Hawk said.

“So what does that do for me?” I said.

“You the sleuth,” Hawk said. “I just a simple negro man.”

“Simple,” I said.

Hawk was looking down the bar at a woman in a dark blue suit.

“Attractive to women, though,” he said.

“I thought she was looking at me,” I said.

“She not,” Hawk said.

I sipped some scotch.

“I suppose I could go back a little, get a little history on Gary,” I said.

“He done a triple at Shirley?” Hawk said.

I nodded.

“For swindling some woman?”

I nodded.

“Might make sense to talk to the woman,” Hawk said.

“I’m a man of great intellectual curiosity,” I said.

We finished our second round. The bartender delivered a third.

“You sure that woman isn’t looking at me?” I said.

“What you care?” Hawk said. “You don’t fool around no more.”

I grinned at him.

“I was never fooling,” I said.

I WAS IN MY OFFICE,at my desk, looking at Gary Pappas’s full folder that Quirk had gotten for me. Susan was at a conference in Portland, Maine, and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. So Pearl was on the couch in my office, which had been purchased for her use. Though now and then, when she wasn’t around, Susan and I used it for our own purposes. My office door opened softly. Pearl barked. My visitors hesitated.

“It’s all right, she won’t bite you,” I said.

The door opened wider and in came Regina Hartley with a man. Pearl barked again, and they looked at me. Pearl had not bothered to get off the couch and remained prone while she barked.

“It’s Bring Your Dog to Work Day,” I said. “Have a seat.”

They walked cautiously past her and sat in front of my desk. Pearl rested her head on her paws and murmured threateningly. I looked at her. She stopped.

“This is my husband, Clifford,” Regina said.

“How do you do?” I said, master of the bon mot.

“We need your help,” Regina said.

“Haven’t done much for you so far,” I said.

“This isn’t about the other girls,” Regina said. “This is just about us.”

I nodded. She looked at her husband. He looked at me. I waited.

“This is awkward,” he said.

“I often hear awkward things,” I said. “I don’t mind.”

He was a slim man, very erect, very well dressed in a blue suit with a blue-striped pin-collar shirt. His hair was white and close-cut. His color was good. He looked at his wife again.

“I can’t,” she said.

He nodded and took a deep breath, and went off the high board.

“I’m gay,” he said.

“ Lot of that going around,” I said.

“ Regina knows. Has always known,” he said. “We care about each other very much, but our lives sometimes run in, ah, separate, though I think parallel, directions.”

“And that works for you?”

“Yes,” he said. “It does.”

Regina nodded.

“Are you out?” I said.

He was silent for a long moment. Then he shook his head.

“No,” he said.

“Would being outed do you harm?”

“I fear so,” he said. “I am being considered as a candidate for the United States Senate.”

“And you fear your gayness would rule you out?”

“Not simply that I am gay,” he said, “but that Regina and I have lived separate sexual lives… rather, I fear, vigorously.”

“Nothing wrong with vigor,” I said.

“You see my problem,” he said. “If I am nominated, this Gary Eisenhower is like a loose cannon out there rolling around.”

“Does he know?” I said.

“About me?” Clifford said. “No, but he knows about Regina, and when I run, he’ll see his big chance, and I’m afraid it will all come out.”

“ Massachusetts has a pretty good history with gay issues,” I said.

“I know,” he said. “But it’s not just gay issues. My wife has slept with an assortment of men.” He smiled faintly. “And so have I.”

I nodded.

“Not a matter of one boyfriend,” I said.

“No,” Clifford said.

I looked at Regina. She shrugged.

“No,” she said.

I nodded.

“Why did you join with the other women?” I said to Regina.

“I thought maybe it would work,” she said. “That we could find someone to make him go away.”

“Can you keep paying him?” I said.

“For a while,” Clifford said. “But it is intolerable.”

I nodded.

“You like your life?”

“Yes,” he said. “We both do.”

Regina nodded.

“I adore her,” he said. “We share everything, except sex. I hope to be with her all my life.”

“ Regina?” I said.

“I feel the same way,” she said.

I leaned back in my chair. Pearl snored gently on the couch.

“Then fess up,” I said.

“You mean tell everyone?” Regina said. “No! No, no, no!”